Obesity in America has reached what can be
considered epidemic proportions. With 30.6% of Americans with a BMI (body
mass index) that places them in the obese category, what is the answer?
What is the cause of the obesity percentages being so high, can it be gluttony,
and or a total lack of self-control? What does the Bible have to say on
gluttony? Plenty! Another discomforting statistic is the number of
people receiving food stamps. Is there a correlation? Let's look at
both of these topics from a biblical perspective. Americans on food stamps
is now at the 40.8 million mark with a 43 million projection by 2011. The
number of people who are actually employed is: 139,391,000. So,
twenty-nine percent of Americans are drawing food stamps and are not working for
a living.

"While we were with you, we gave this
order: "If anyone doesn't want to work, he shouldn't eat."
We hear that some of you are living in idleness. You are not busy
working-you are busy interfering in other people's lives!
We order and encourage such people by the Sovereign Yahshua the Messiah
to do their work quietly and to earn their own living." 2Thessalonians
3:10-12

All capable
individuals should work for a living and not take welfare payments and or food
stamps. One must work in order to eat according to the above quote from 2
Thessalonians 3. What is the definition of gluttony?

Merriam Webster's
Collegiate Dictionary: Tenth Edition defines a glutton as "one given habitually
to greedy and voracious eating and drinking." Voracious is "having a huge
appetite: ravenous; excessively eager: insatiable." Synonyms for "gluttony" are
greed, avarice, gorge, epicure, cram, stuff, and guzzle. Children who eat
voraciously are said to "eat us out of house and home," and an adult who eats
often "plays a good knife and fork."

Gluttony is the act
of immoderate/excessive eating and/or drinking. Gluttony focuses on pleasure
alone and finds it in food and drink. At gluttony's root is the lack of
self-control. Gluttony is the worship of food!
Exodus 20:3 You shall have no other elohim before me. Philippians 3:19...whose
end is perdition, whose elohim is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame,
who mind earthly things.

"When you sit down to
eat with a ruler, look carefully at what is before you;
and put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite. Proverbs
23:1-2

The lack of
self-control is apparent throughout today's society. The super size me
generation has eaten to excess for several decades and the physical and medical
results are apparent even to the untrained eye. "Hear, my son, and be wise, And
guide your heart in the way.
Be not among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh:
For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty; And drowsiness will
clothe a man with rags." Proverbs 23:19-21

The size of the
hamburgers that can be purchased from the fast food places are more than twice
what they once were. This excessive oversizing and consumption is beyond what
is necessary for basic body sustenance. Therefore, this categorizes many
as "gluttonous eaters of flesh." This depicts a weakness in character when
someone cannot control their consumption and seeks excessive levels of food that
are found in the super sized portions. Many gluttons also find their
comfort (solace) in the all you can eat places so ubiquitous today.

So many people in
times past, and even today, cannot be disciplined when it comes to gluttony.
They have no shame and obviously no conscious either. Even if it is
brought to their attention they will continue to eat unashamedly and they will
become a fierce enemy when their overeating problem is pointed out to them.

"For many
walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the
enemies of the tree of the Messiah:
whose end is perdition,
whose mighty one is the belly, and
whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.Philippians
3:18-19 "For they that
are such serve not our Master the Messiah, but their own
belly; and by their smooth and fair speech they beguile the hearts
of the innocent." Romans 16:18 The Apostle Paul was speaking in a generation
and among a people that were given to excessive eating. He says that their
mighty one is their own belly and is there anything new under the sun? How
does this line-up with the First Commandment..."You shall have no other elohim
before me?" If their own belly has become their elohim, then Almighty Yahweh and
Yahshua the Messiah have been supplanted by the physical and carnal desires of
the glutton.

Are we destroying our
bodies by excessive eating, gluttony? The scriptures teach in 1
Corinthians chapter 3 "Do you not know that you are a temple of Yahweh, and that
the Spirit of Yahweh dwells in you?
If anyone defiles the temple of Yahweh, Yahweh shall destroy him. For the temple
of Yahweh is holy, which you are." 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Does
gluttony destroy the body? What are some of the diseases that are caused
by excessive eating, gluttony and ultimately, obesity?

Can these diseases be
considered a destruction of the body when incurred with gluttony? Yes, of
course! The uncontrolled life of the compulsive overeater it one of evil
desire and covetousness. Desiring what is beyond satisfaction will play
itself out in every event in the glutton's life. The uncontrolled person
will pursue a path of over-eating, over-accumulation, always in the path of
getting for their own satiation. The life of the true believer will be one
of self-control, restraint.

"But the fruit of the
Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith,
meekness, self-control; against such things there is
no law." Galatians 5:22-23

The glutton will not
exhibit the fruits of the Spirit, they are only concerned with self.

Towards the end of
the reign of Roman emperors, gluttony was at an all time high. In fact,
vomitoriums were erected so that people who had eaten or drank too much could
vomit and go and eat and drink some more - the ultimate act of gluttony.
Regrettably, gluttony didnít go out of style when Rome fell. Just one look at
obese America and the thriving weight loss industry proves that gluttony is
still very much in style. America is considered to be the modern day Rome.
Remember the two legs of Daniel chapter two, one was the Roman Empire past, the
other the resurrected Roman Empire, considered to be America today!

Gluttony is a
lifestyle choice! No one has to be a glutton, they choose to be one!
We are faced with choices in life and we must discipline ourselves accordingly.
Do we choose to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Father
Yahweh or do we follow our own lusts and carnal inclinations? For those
who refuse to heed the admonition of the Torah, read this!

"If a man has a
stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to his father's voice, or his
mother's voice; even though they discipline him, he will not listen to them;
then his father and his mother shall lay hold on him and bring him out to the
elders of his city, and to the gate of his place;
and they shall say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and
rebellious; he will not listen to our voice;
he is a glutton, and a drunkard.
And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, and he shall die. So
you shall put away the evil from among you, that all Israel shall hear, and
fear." Deuteronomy 21:19-21 [LITV]

Would Yahshua the
Messiah be a glutton? He was accused of it! Look at this passage,
but also observe the context!

"For John the
Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, He has a
demon.
The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, Behold a gluttonous
man and a winebibber, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!
But wisdom has been justified by all her children." Luke 7:33-35 [MKJV]

No, Yahshua was no
glutton, he was being compared to his cousin John (Yahanan) who did not eat and
drink excessively while Yahshua dined with assorted peoples of his time, eating
and drinking the food set before him. John could drink no wine and his
diet consisted of locusts and wild honey, Matthew 3:4. Balance is one of
the key thoughts here, and we know that Yahshua was a very balanced person in
all that he did!

Towards the end of the reign of Roman emperors, gluttony was at an all
time high. In fact, vomitoriums were erected so that people who had
eaten or drank too much could vomit and go and eat and drink some more -
the ultimate act of gluttony.

Unfortunately, gluttony didnít go out of
style when Rome fell. Just one look at obese America and the thriving
weight loss industry proves that gluttony is still very much in style.

What exactly is gluttony? Why is is a deadly sin? Did
gluttony go out with the fall of the Roman empire, or is
it still around today?

Towards the end of the reign of Roman emperors, gluttony was at an
all time high. In fact, vomitoriums were erected so that people who had
eaten or drank too much could vomit and go and eat and drink some more -
the ultimate act of gluttony.

Unfortunately, gluttony didnít go out of style when Rome fell. Just
one look at obese America and the thriving weight loss industry proves
that gluttony is still very much in style.

Towards the end of the reign of Roman emperors, gluttony was at an all
time high. In fact, vomitoriums were erected so that people who had
eaten or drank too much could vomit and go and eat and drink some more -
the ultimate act of gluttony.

Unfortunately, gluttony didnít go out of
style when Rome fell. Just one look at obese America and the thriving
weight loss industry proves that gluttony is still very much in style.